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In spite of her hesitation, Meeka showed her value to the group on the winding path leading up the rocky spire to Jo'rhun. She clearly had a talent for detecting and disarming a surprising number of magical wards and traps when she wasn't being bounced around and distracted inside a carriage. But everyone makes a mistake once in a while.

I wasn't used to taking up the rear. Walking behind Sidik wasn't unpleasant by itself, but I had been trained to be ready to take the brunt of an attack. That usually meant being at the front of a group. Regardless, Nadalo had insisted on taking the lead with Meeka next to her. Considering that Nadalo was an Athra, which made her the equivalent of a high priestess's apprentice, I deferred to her wishes. It made sense since Meeka was the one who had to discover the traps.

We had a brief reprieve from the wind halfway up the spire when the path rounded to the southern side. I took a few longer steps to catch up with Sidik and spoke quietly as not to disturb our Suplicyte. "Is there something between you and the Athra, Sidik?"

"Right now, about twenty feet of air and a cloak." Sidik looked back at me with a small sneer. "Your cloak, in fact."

"You would rather she walk around naked?" I asked.

The lewdly suggestive look in Sidik's eye and the smirk she quickly put on was all the answer she gave.

I waved the question off. "What I meant was that you two seem to have some kind of previous relationship. Are you often in the company of Shields of Espara like Nadalo?"

"Not that often," Sidik replied, her expression falling. She looked back at Nadalo beside Meeka. "You're sort of new to the Swords, aren't you?"

"Not so much," I answered. "I've been in the Swords of Espara since I was old enough to hold a weapon. My mother is Mahdin Javaed."

Sidik made a sucking noise through her teeth. "Tch. So you are related to the Mahdin. I didn't know she had any daughters." She sighed. "She must have kept you secret for a long time for me to miss gossip like that."

"Do the Knives always deal in rumors and gossip, or is that something specific to you?" I asked.

Sidik shrugged. "Knives are trained to have sharp ears and to keep them to the ground. I like to think I can ferret out secrets as well as any other Sekrit, but to have missed a Mahdin having a daughter makes me wonder what else I don't know about you."

"There's not that much to know," I stated, looking at the bend in the road ahead. Nadalo and Meeka rounded it, momentarily leaving our sight. "I'm a Sword of Espara. My blade is meant to cut. I am meant to slash. I surrender nothing. Victory is my only peace. My only defeat is in death."

Sidik rolled her eyes at that and stopped immediately, stepping in front of and facing me. "Wow, spoken like a true zealot, Delvara. But who are you aside from being a Sword?"

It took me a moment to realize what Sidik was asking, but I wasn't so thick as to not eventually understand. "Delvara Javaed. I'm not quick to assume, but I act quickly when I've reached a conclusion. I don't feel a need to challenge others until there's a serious reason for it, I have no use for posturing, and I let my actions speak for me."

Sidiki gestured at me with her hand. "You were pretty quick to want to strike up a conversation just now."

I nodded at that. "Actions don't always satisfy curiosity, but watching you and Nadalo interact made me think that there was something between the two of you at some point."

Sidik curled the corner of her mouth in a half smile. "Well, you don't have to be hugely perceptive to figure that out." She started walking again, heading for the bend in the path with her hands resting on the hilts of her short swords. "It's not as though I was trying to be subtle about it."

I started after her again. "But she did seem reluctant to acknowledge it."

"Obviously," Sidik replied.

"Does that annoy you?" I asked.

"You picked up on it, so not really." Sidik rounded the bend and waved her hand back over her shoulder. "Look, there was something between me and Nadalo at one point, but it's hard for me to tell if it's still there anymore. You've seen how the Athra acts. Even I have trouble provoking a reaction from her." She held her hands up helplessly. "Hell, a swarm of tentacles ripping her clothes off barely warranted a blush." She clenched her teeth and her fists. "It's just so damn hard to get a reaction out of that woman."

"But you persist," I commented. "Is it because you still like her, or do you just enjoy a challenge?"

Sidik stopped again and looked back at me. She wore a half smile again. "All right, so maybe you are perceptive." But she didn't answer the question as she started up the road again. It became clear to me that the topic was a tender one in some way, so I let it drop.

"Aside from what you mentioned earlier, what do you know about The Sorceress, Sidik?" I asked as I caught up to and walked beside her.

Sidik kept her eyes ahead as we came back into view of Nadalo and Meeka. They had stopped midway up the next path but turned and continued when they saw us again. "Well, for one thing, she has a name other than The Sorceress. Tanaleer Ivok. She was a noble woman in Vadabia before it was overrun by Vildekin thirty years ago. She survived the attack from the Vildelands and fled to Mid Espara with her brother, Tivan Ivok, and her uncle, Kledis Ivok-Nespira."

"She became a citizen of Mid Espara for a short period. But after her brother was executed for treason against the city of Kahdin, she went into obscurity for the next twenty years. Her uncle, Kledis, died of pneumonia some ten years after Tivan was killed." Sidik looked back at me again. "I've heard a few rumors that Kledis was actually looking for Tanaleer in the Tehng'ray Mountains when he became ill. Guess even he didn't know where she'd gone."

"How did she come to be The Sorceress?" I inquired.

"Well..." Sidik removed one hand from her blade to rub the side of her neck. "There are a lot of suppositions about how she acquired power, but no one was really paying that much attention to her. At least, they didn't until a Vildekin let slip the name 'The Sorceress' after one of the raids on of the border towns in the south. Kepit, I think, was the name of the town."

"Didn't you say that there were only rumors about her being responsible?" I queried.

Sidik ticked her finger back and forth in the air. "The Vildekin only said that they'd been aided by this 'Sorceress'. That's when the Knives of Espara started looking more closely at this 'Sorceress'. It took a lot of digging to learn who she really was."

"A Vadabian woman named Tanaleer Ivok who somehow acquired the power to influence the weather and control creatures of the deep world," I interjected.

"You listen well," Sidik snorted, swiping some of her short, orange hair out of her face. "But it remains largely unknown from where she gets her power." She gestured at Nadalo and Meeka before they rounded the next bend. "Certainly not from the same place as Meeka and Nadalo, though."

"The way Meeka talked, I should think no--" I felt the ground suddenly sink beneath my next step. It was as though I'd stepped in deep mud, but the soil quickly gave way completely. I felt my foot sink into a gelatinous ooze, and the weight of my armor acted as an anchor, dragging me down further. Before I could even think, I was waist deep in in a clear blue ooze.

"Sidik!" I called out.

She turned around quickly at the sound of my startled cry, and her eyes flew wide open. "What the sense make?!"

I was already sinking into the ooze up to my chest, and I quickly grabbed the front of my helm. I yanked down the scales of my faceplate, and they layered themselves down my neck, covering me to my collarbones. As I sank up to my neck, I tried to turn and grab at the ground behind me, but that too melted into the ooze. Thankfully, it was not leaking through my armor, but Sidik couldn't even grab for me as the ooze quickly drew me under and covered my head.

The ooze moved about, stirring my limbs around and forcing my legs apart. I felt my face redden when it jabbed at my crotch plate ineffectually. Even if it wasn't getting through, I felt embarrassed that it was trying to jab at my loins. It also mashed against my faceplate and pushed on my chest. I can't remember ever being more grateful for the thoroughness of the Armor of Espara.

Looking through the crystal covers over my eyes, I saw the end of a rope splash into the ooze and quickly sink. I tried to grab for it, but the ooze fought to restrain me. I squeezed my eyes shut as it forced my back into a sharp arch and restrained my arms behind me. I struggled with it, but my strength was useless. It had me.

I opened my eyes to see that the ooze was pulling on the rope, then eased up on it. It pulled again, and I couldn't understand what it was doing. I looked up through the gelatinous trap only to see the blurry image of Sidik pulling on the rope. When she turned her back and put the rope over her shoulder, I finally grasped what the ooze was doing.

I couldn't warn Sidik as the rope suddenly sank all the way to the bottom of the ooze. Sidik slammed down on her back on top of the ooze and quickly sank. She too tried to fight with it, but she did not wear the Armor of Espara. While the ooze held me restrained, I could only watch as it squeezed around her boots and into the waist of her leather armor. The straps of her boots unlatched and were dragged off to reveal her bare feet. She had a furious look on her face as she burbled something amidst the ooze. Her eyes then flew wide, and she looked shocked as she tried to close her mouth. It wouldn't shut. The bulge that grew in her throat told me exactly why.

I tried to thrash my head about and pulled at my arms, but I was utterly helpless. The ooze stripped Sidik's leather pants off and tilted her body back. Her legs were forced open in front of me, and I felt intense heat flooding my cheeks as the folds of her sex split, and her vagina gaped in front of me. She thrashed about, but her arms were jerked back as sharply as my own. She had no power to fight the ooze either.

I felt my hot breath pouring against the back of my face guard, transfixed as Sidik's hips rocked back, and her sex spread wider for a brief moment. She let out a gurgled cry through the gelatinous ooze shoved down her throat. Her hips rolled forward, and her knees were bent upward by the ooze. Then, her vagina gaped widely again, drawing together for a moment only to gape widely again. I knew that some friends were close, but before Sidik and I had really established much of a relationship, I was seeing parts of her that even her lover might never look upon. My heart was pounding while I watched the ooze assaulting her body. It felt wrong, and I quickly shut my eyes.

Another gurgled cry from Sidik compelled me to open then again. Her eyes were wide as the top of her leather armor split, being partially ripped away from the metal plate on her chest then torn from her torso by the ooze. Her breasts were moderately-sized, almost the same size as Nadalo's. At least, they were for a moment. Nadalo's head jerked back, her mouth still full agape. I felt my own eyes slowly grow wider in mixed amazement and ashamed awe as her breasts seemed to subtly grow in size. They wobbled in the ooze unnaturally, her torso twisting from side to side. It was as though the ooze had flooded her breasts, increasing their size, and was using that internal grasp to tug them about. I found myself both drawn to the depravity of it, repelled by the thought of it, and shamefully curious about how it felt. But the thought that swiftly overrode all others was my concern for Sidik.

When I looked back at her face, however, that concern suddenly melted. Her eyes were half-closed, and as her body rocked with the unique form of violation, her cheeks were bright red. Her gaping mouth even seemed to twist into a drunken, distorted smile. I was shocked that she seemed to be enjoying this abuse. And once more, my curiosity was piqued. I felt my breath drain away as I wondered how it must have felt for her to so quickly go from panic to pleasure.

Suddenly, the ooze violently wobbled. The surface of it seemed to turn to ice and become still. A moment later, the top of the ooze shattered, and pieces of it sank into the rest of its body. It shook Sidik and I about, its movements becoming erratic and violent. Part of it above us swiftly rose. I heard Meeka's muffled words through the ooze, but could not see her clearly. A bright, blue glow formed in both of her hands as she separated them out to either side of her body. When she thrust them together, a pale ray slashed through the risen part of the ooze. The top half of it froze into a solid block and shattered as it fell back to the ground.

The ooze reacted quickly, and as Meeka began chanting again, Sidik was raised. Her body was turned so that her back faced me, and the ooze put her between itself and Meeka. Meeka's chanting swiftly ceased while I received a full view of the Sekrit's backside and her gaping anus. Even as it used her as a shield, I could see the inside of her butt flexing forward, then being tugged back while it assaulted her anus obsessively in spite of being attacked.

Even so, the ooze's grip on my arms and legs weakened as it focused on Meeka and Sidik. Part of its body lashed out toward the Suplicyte, but Nadalo spoke a word, and a bright glow swept up her arm. That glow formed itself into a flat covering for the front of her hand. She smacked the ooze's body aside, deflecting it from its course toward Meeka. Its whole body shook with the blow, and I felt its grip on me fail completely.

Seeing the soil wall of the pit in which the ooze had been hidden, I thrust my arm out and grabbed firmly. Dragging myself free, I pushed up on my faceplate, and its scaly layers retracted back into the helm, allowing me a breath of fresher air. I quickly looked up to see Sidik being used as a shield against Meeka's magic while Nadalo continued to swat its attempts to assault the Suplicyte aside. I knew what I had to do.

Climbing out of the pit, I yanked my sword free and waited for the right moment. Meeka lowered her hands, trying to aim for the ooze's base, and the ooze lowered Sidik with it. When she raised them, the ooze extended itself, growing taller and thinner to keep Sidik in harm's way. That was my chance.

Leaping back into the pit, I used the force of my jump and the power of my swing to slash the blade through the ooze's extended body. It had stretched itself thin enough that I could cut clean through. The part holding Sidik dropped, and I caught my ooze-covered ally in my arms, pinning my back against the far side of the pit and shouting, "NOW!"

Meeka didn't hesitate. As the ooze lashed toward Sidik and me, I clutched her tightly and turned around, putting myself between her and our attacker. But it never reached us.

A ray of white frost washed over the ooze, and it froze into a solid chunk. It was still briefly before tilting forward and plunking part of its frozen body down on my shoulder. I stepped aside, and it thudded into the soil wall. I let out a sigh of relief, but the battle was not yet over.

A tendril of ooze rose from the gathered mass on Sidik's belly and jammed itself into my mouth. Nearly dropping Sidik, I arched my head back and tried to pull away, but it quickly grew too long. I felt my throat swelling as the ooze forced its way down. I dropped to my knees with Sidik in my arms and set her down on the ground to grab at the mass of gelatin. Once again, strength proved useless against it, and my chest tightened as I fought to take a breath.

"Try sound," came Nadalo's calm voice from behind me.

I heard the pages of Meeka's book turning before she cleared her throat. What I heard flow from her lips then made me almost forget about the ooze. They were the most beautiful and melodious tones that I thought I'd ever heard in my life. My eyes half-closed, and I even forgot my need to breathe. I felt as though I was being lulled into a peace so complete that I would have followed it into a six-foot pit.

The ooze, on the other hand, slowly dislodged itself from my throat. The sound of Meeka's wordless song was so enthralling that I barely managed to remind myself to take a breath. The ooze-covered Sidik wore such a contented expression, in spite of the ooze still covering her body, that I thought she might fall asleep.

I watched as the ooze slowly slurped its way out of Sidik's vagina and plopped onto the ground between her legs. It withdrew from her mouth as well, and even her breasts slowly shrank as it trickled from her perky nipples. She was once more closer to Nadalo's size in her chest when the ooze gathered together on the ground beside her.

"Finish it," Nadalo commanded quietly.

Meeka's soothing music turned to echoing chants. She raised her hands above her shoulders, and swirls of icy crystals gathered as if drawn from the wind. When she lowered her hands out to either side, those crystal dispersed into flowing frost. The ooze, robbed of its soothing music, started to rise again. I threw myself across Sidik's body before a full blast of frost exploded on the ooze's remains. It thudded to the ground in a single, frozen piece.

Sidik slowly seemed to come around and looked up at me perched over top of her. She blinked, then looked down the length of her naked body. Her head fell back, and she muttered. "Goddess damnit."

"Are you all right?" Nadalo asked quietly.

Sidik didn't answer immediately. Pushing herself up, she was red-faced as she pointed at her torn leather armor. "Someone give me my clothes, please."

I quickly turned and grabbed what was left of Sidik's armor. I pushed it to her and settled back on my heels. "Nadalo asked if you are all right, Sidik. Please don't dismiss that question after what just happened to you."

Sidik, pulling her armor together to put it on, muttered. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Just embarrassed that one of the best fuckings of my life came from a trap set by some perverted sorceress."

It took a moment for those words to sink in. That moment was occupied by my jaw slowly falling open in astonishment.

"One of the best?" Nadalo asked, abandoning her usual monotone. It was the sound of Nadalo's normally calm voice rising in surprise that snapped me back to reality.

Sidik pulled her torn leather chest piece together around the metal plate that was thankfully undamaged. She looked past me and smirked at the Athra. "Yeah. One of the best," she said with a taunting tone.

Shoving herself up, she pulled her belt tight to hold the torn top of her armor together. The metal plate on her chest and her belt seemed sufficient to hold it, at least keeping the leather armor together enough to cover her. She then rubbed the back of her head. "But seriously, what in the Goddess's name are we up against? Tentacles ripping off your clothes, an ooze trap that seemed more inclined to fill every one of my orifices than actually hurt me. What is Tanaleer's deal?"

Nadalo's voice became flat and even again. "We will soon find out." She looked back at Meeka then. "How is it that you missed that trap, Meeka?"

Meeka, her face red, stammered. "Th-There wasn't any... there wasn't any magic in it. I-I didn't sense anything." She looked down at the ground dejectedly. "I'm so sorry, Athra."

I looked back at the frozen ooze. The tentacle trap we'd encountered earlier had collapsed when Meeka had used a magical dysjunction spell. The ooze, on the other hand, hadn't appeared to her as magical, and she'd had to use ice to defeat it. But it seemed as though it had to be a creature of magic.

"Could this be a creature of the Deep World?" Nadalo asked flatly.

Meeka nodded slowly. "It-It might be. It probably is. There was no magic in it, and it moved unnaturally." She closed her book, which had been floating of its own accord in front of her, and it fell back to her side, hanging from the chain around her waist. "Many of the creatures of the Deep World possess strange powers, and they don't require magic to use them."

I stood up and grabbed the edge of the pit to climb out. Sidik took my hand when I offered it, and I helped her out as well. Once she was on her feet, I looked to Meeka. "Why did the trap only spring on me? Surely the three of you walked over it."

"Because you are heavier," Nadalo stated simply. She turned back around to face the path ahead. Glancing back over her shoulder, she spoke calmly. "Perhaps you should instead walk with Meeka, Delvara. If we can spring such traps before they ensnare someone less protected," she glanced at Sidik, "then we can disarm them before someone else gets... hurt."

I glanced at Sidik as well. Only her armor seemed much the worse for wear.

Sidik cleared her throat and turned her head. "Give us a second, Nadalo, Meeka." Nadalo and Meeka exchanged a brief glance before the two of them walked a few paces away. Then, Sidik looked up at me again. "What exactly can you see when that face plate is down?" she asked.

I blushed for a moment and turned my head, ready to catch up with Meeka and Nadalo. "Sidik, there are some parts of a person's body even her closest friends shouldn't get a look at." I cleared my throat. "You have body runes in some very, very strange places, Sekrit Sidik Shinude. So I'm guessing, as entirely mind boggling as it is, that I am not the first to have seen those places."

I didn't wait for Sidik to reply. I walked up to Meeka and Nadalo, put my hand on my hip, and gestured to the road ahead. "We have a sorceress to defeat."

Meeka and I started off again. Sidik caught up with Nadalo, and I couldn't help but glance back over my shoulder at them. This time, it was Nadalo who was eying a rather satisfied looking Sidik. I looked forward and tilted my head back. I suddenly felt that I didn't want to further explore the relationship between those two.